Konoha’s forest was bustling with people. It was that time of the year; the bonfire festival. Scarlet, Midnight and Crimson sat on a log, stuffing themselves with food and watching the fire and the people dancing merrily around it.

“Don’t you guys want to dance?” said Scarlet.

“With who?” said Midnight, “you don’t mean that we should dance with each other?”

“’Course not,” said Scarlet, “Breeze and Azure don’t have dance partners either. Let’s ask them.”

“Good idea.”

Scarlet and Midnight rose up immediately, but as they turned around to leave, two strong hands grabbed them by shoulders.

“Wait, wait, wait,” said Crimson. “There are two of them and three of us. What will you do about it?”

“Err… ”

Scarlet smiled cheekily and rubbed the pack of his head. Midnight uncomfortably turned his eyes from Crimson to Scarlet then to the bonfire. The two of them didn’t find a useful thing to say.

Crimson glared at them and said, “you didn’t just think about leaving me behind, did you?”

“It is not like we want to,” said Scarlet, “but as you said, they are two. We are three. Someone has to be left out.”

Midnight took out a coin from his purse, “let’s decide by a coin flip.”

Scarlet nodded, but Crimson s* his head and said, “I don’t want to leave anyone out, so, let’s find a third dance partner first.”

The three of them combed the crowd looking for anyone with no dance partner. Scarlet was the first to spot a dark haired girl standing alone and looking around her nervously, as if in search for someone or something.

“Hinata,” he said to the girl, “do you want to dance with me?”

A shade of red akin to the burning flames spread across Hinata’s face.

“I… but… Na-Naruto-kun.”

”… Never mind what I just said,” said Scarlet, ”sorry that I asked. Also, if you are looking for Naruto, I saw him by the food tables.”

“Um… thank you,” said Hinata and made her way quickly to the food tables.

The next to find a potential dance partner was Midnight. He walked to a girl with hair tied in four pigtails and said, “Temari, do you want to dance?

Temari shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

When Midnight tried to take her hand, he found himself unable to move. With quiet a struggle he looked down and saw a dark shadow underneath his feet. Suddenly his legs moved two steps backward and he tripped on a log and fell.

“Midnight, are you alright?” said a familiar voice. When Midnight turned, he saw Shikamaru walking leisurely toward them.

“Oi, Temari,” said Shikamaru, “someone just brought a bunch of the Konoha’s special bonfire cupcakes that you wanted to taste.”

“Oh? They better be as good as you claimed,” said Temari.

“You can be sure they are.”

And so Temari went with Shikamaru to eat cupcakes, leaving Midnight and his friends to their ineffective search for a dance partner.

“You two are pathetic,” said Crimson. “Watch how I will do it.”

And he walked with oozing confidence to a Kumo-girl and said, “Karui, dance with me.”

Karui looked up at him and said, “sorry, not interested.”

For a moment there, Crimson stood rooted in his spot, unable to find words to say.

“Is he in shock?” commented Midnight.

“I think so,” said Scarlet, “his confidence was just smashed to little pieces.”

Karui guzzled down beer from a large mug and said joyfully, “who cares about dancing? The best thing about a bonfire is chilling and drinking.”

Crimson sighed and said to his friends, “you know what? Let’s forget about finding a third partner.We should just go and ask Azure and Breeze. Maybe we can take turns dancing or something?”

The three of them went to where the two girls were last seen sitting, but Azure and Breeze were not there. The only person sitting on the log was Anko who was eating her favorite sweets.

“Where are Breeze and Azure?” asked Midnight.

“Dancing,” said Anko. “Two Iwagakure-nin asked them.”

“WHAT?!!!” cried the three boys in unison. Only then they realized how * it was to assume that the girls would wait for them. After all they had not previously made an agreement to dance together.

“Let’s forget about dancing altogether,” said Scarlet. “We can enjoy the festival in a different way.”

He took out a scroll, unrolled it and summoned a bottle and three cups.

“Sake? Where did you get that from?” asked Crimson.

“From home, of course. Though my parents may not have seen me take it.”

“We are minors,” said Midnight.

“So what?” said Scarlet. “Doesn’t it piss you off that ninja from the other villages get to drink regardless of age, but here in Konoha we have to worry about being adults or not? Come on, have you guys never wanted to try ‘chilling and drinking’—as Karui puts is—by the bonfire?”

Midnight and Crimson looked at each other, then each of them took a cup.

An hour later, everyone at the bonfire could hear three boys singing out of tone and laughing uncontrollably. Breeze looked in their direction and said, “I wonder what happened to them?”

“I don’t know,” said Azure, “but sounds like they are having a lot of fun.”

“You think so?” said Breeze and smiled mischievously as she took out her camera, “I will have a lot of fun too. And lots of blackmailing materials.”

The bonfire festivals ended with no troubles for anyone. However, during the next few weeks the three boys had to obey anything Breeze and Azure told them. That was until Breeze pitied them and gave them the ‘evidence’ of their embarrassing moment. But she did save a copy for herself, which she and Azure would sometimes look at and laugh.

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UID: 200000108130631

Server number: S884:Vehicle Suspense

Character name: Nanami